Usually our weekend round is bits and bobs of tournament results, but today we have a couple of off court news items.
Waselenchuk injury
Kane Waselenchuk announced he completely tore his Achilles tendon last month at the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) Capitol Classic Racquetball Tournament in Millersville, Maryland. His announcement came during an interview Sunday night on Sudsy Monchik’s Beyond The Court YouTube channel. Waselenchuk underwent surgery for the injury on October 4, so he’ll be in rehabilitation for the injury soon.
How well Waselenchuk will be able to recover from the injury is anyone’s guess, and he received mixed messages from medical professions ahead of his surgery. Counting against him is the fact he’ll turn 41 next month. But counting for him is the fact that he’s an elite athlete, who is well aware of how to train properly and the benefits of doing so.
According to WebMD, people return to full activity 4-6 months after surgery, and a full recovery isn’t expected until a year afterwards with the possibility of never getting back to 100%. That means Waselenchuk might not be back to full fitness until he turns 43 next November. Of course, those are expectations for common people, and Waselenchuk is quite uncommon, so his recovery may be much better or faster or both than this guideline.
Many people are saddened by Waselenchuk’s absence from the IRT, which is understandable because he’s the best player of this era. Some are so disappointed that they have lost interest in racquetball, which is difficult to understand, because there are still good players and great matches to be seen. Are these players as good as Waselenchuk? Maybe not, but Waselenchuk was never going to play forever, so there was always going to be a point at which he left the scene.
Sadly, that point may come due to injury rather than Waselenchuk’s choice, but it was going to come. Recently, Roger Federer and Serena Williams retired from tennis, and their absences will be noticed and they’ll be missed. But we’re still going to watch tennis.
And we’re going to watch racquetball even without Waselenchuk.
Grisz named USA Racquetball Executive Director
On Friday, USA Racquetball (USAR) announced the appointment of Mike Grisz as their new Executive Director. Grisz was on the USAR Board of Directors, so for the third consecutive time a USAR board member has become the Executive Director. Grisz succeeds Mike Wedel, whose resignation was announced last month. Wedel held the position for four years succeeding Jason Thoerner. Like Grisz, both Wedel and Thoerner were USAR board members prior to becoming Executive Director.
If you were looking for a breath of fresh air from the new Executive Director, it’s difficult to see it coming from someone already within the organization. Do you need to hire a racquetball person as your Executive Director? Racquetball Canada’s last three Executive Directors have come from outside of racquetball, and they have all been positive for the organization. So, no it’s not necessary to hire a racquetball person to be the USA Racquetball Executive Director, and it could even help bring a new perspective to the table.
But Grisz could be a good choice for the position. From our brief interactions with him, he seems like a fine fellow. However, the Executive Director’s role is to serve at the will of the Board, so no one should be expecting Grisz to be a white knight riding in to solve all of USA Racquetball's problems.
We’re not sure what problems those are, although one may be finances, as part of the announcement in Grisz’s appointment is that he will serve the role unpaid. Explaining his decision to do so, Grisz said “I feel I owe this to the sport that has contributed so much to my life.” USAR President Stewart Solomon’s comment that “the Board is grateful that [Grisz] is able to volunteer his time” when “the association is still recovering from a reduced membership base” suggests the USAR isn’t in a good financial position.
Was the USAR Board in a situation where they were unsure of whether they could pay someone whatever the going rate is for a National Sport Organization’s Executive Director and Grisz, as a Board member, saw that difficulty and volunteered - literally - to fill the position? It could be that they took the path of least resistance in making this appointment.
But doing the easiest thing isn’t always the best thing. For example, if someone is not being paid, then people may not be as critical of the person, because “well, the person is doing it out of the kindness of his/her heart” and how can you be critical of someone who is doing that? Moreover, what is the USAR going to do for their next ED when they have to go from budgeting $0 for the position to something significant, because being the ED of a National Sport Organization is a big job that should command a significant salary, especially if you are looking to attract quality candidates for the job.
Again, Grisz could work out fine, but the situation suggests USA Racquetball isn’t in a good place right now.
US Open
Grisz stated that one of his objectives is to “enhance the US OPEN and all of the other National Events.” This was the first year the US Open was handled without Doug Ganim, who was its Tournament Director for the 25 previous US Opens. Many people were disappointed that the portable court, which was the primary feature of Ganim’s US Opens, was not used this year, although it seemed that using the portable court was not a possibility, which again we believe is due to finances. However, we think it would have been more disappointing to not have a US Open at all, so good on the USAR for continuing the US Open tradition even if the portable court was unavailable.
If you’re looking for why the US Open wasn’t a spectacle this year compared to years past, consider that Ganim ran that event exclusively, so he could give the event his full attention. Connor Shane ran it this year, as he is the USA Racquetball’s Director of National Events. There are 5 US National Championships plus the US Open on Shane’s plate. If you think six events seems like too much for just one person, we’d agree with you.
But USA Racquetball only has three staff members: Shane, Grisz, and Reneé Isherwood, who is the Director of Operations & National Teams. Three staff members is not many for a National Sport Organization. In comparison, USA Table Tennis has six staff members, and US Squash has 27 (twenty seven!) staff members plus five technology staff.
So, USAR is operating as a bare bones organization, and that can make it difficult for them to solve any of the problems (perceived or actual) that they have.
Thus, when Grisz said he’s “looking forward to a challenging … experience,” he’s undoubtedly going to have one.
Follow the bouncing ball…..
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